Trends in white blood cell and platelet indices in a comparison of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma and multinodular goiter do not permit differentiation between the conditions.

AIM: Carcinogenesis has been related to systematic inflammatory response. Our aim was to study white blood cell and platelet indices as markers of this inflammatory response in thyroid cancer and to associate them with various clinicopathological parameters.

METHODS

We included 228 patients who underwent thyroidectomy within a period of 54 months, 89 with papillary thyroid carcinoma and 139 with multinodular hyperplasia. We examined potential links between white blood cell and platelet indices on the one hand and the type thyroid pathology and various clinicopathological parameters on the other.

RESULTS

No significant differences were detected between thyroid cancer and multinodular hyperplasia and no significant associations were detected with regard to lymphovascular invasion and tumor size. However, the mean platelet volume was higher in multifocal tumors, while the platelet count, plateletcrit, and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio were increased in cases with extrathyroidal extension and in T3 tumors. Additionally, T3 tumors had lower platelet distribution width. These associations demonstrated low accuracy in predicting these pathological features, but they were found to provide a satisfying negative predictive value, with the exception of the mean platelet volume.

CONCLUSIONS

White blood cell and platelet indices cannot assist in distinguishing benign goiter from thyroid cancer. However, they can provide information about tumor multifocality, extrathyroidal extension, and presence of a T3 tumor, and they may be used as a means to exclude these pathological characteristics, especially the last two, in papillary thyroid carcinoma.